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343Fault
Lines: COVID-19, the Charter, and Long-term Care
are regulated at the provincial/territorial level. But although govern-
ments provide over 70% of funding, long-term care falls outside the
framework of the Canada Health Act and the single-payer system.18 As
a result, levels of public investment and ownership vary greatly across
the country, and no national standards or uniform conditions exist.19
There is wide agreement that “funding and services have not
kept pace with increasing needs of residents.”20 Over the past 20 years,
health care and seniors’ advocacy groups, labour unions, public inter-
est and human rights organizations, researchers, ombudspersons, and
governments themselves, have criticized the substandard condition
of many facilities, the insufficient level of public funding, the undue
financial burden placed on low-income seniors, wait times, and the
lack of oversight and failure to enforce existing health, safety and other
regulations.21 Poor wages and working conditions, as Pat Armstrong,
<www.seniorsadvocatebc.ca/app/uploads/sites/4/2018/01/QuickFacts2018-
Summary.pdf>; “This is Long-Term Care 2019” (2019) at 3, online (pdf): Ontario
Long-term Care Association <www.oltca.com/OLTCA/Documents/Reports/
TILTC2019web.pdf>.
18. “Health Spending—Nursing Homes” (last visited 29 May 2020) online (pdf):
Canadian Institute for Health Information <secure.cihi.ca/free_products/infos-
heet_Residential_LTC_Financial_EN.pdf>; Steven Lewis, “The Pandemic and
the Politics of Long-term Care in Canada”, Policy Options (11 May 2020), online:
<policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/the-pandemic-and-the-politics-
of-long-term-care-in-canada/>. In Ontario, for example, provincial funding in
2018 was $4.28 billion or 7% of the overall provincial health budget; “About
Long-term Care in Ontario: Facts and Figures” (last visited 29 May 2020), online:
Ontario Long Term Care Association <www.oltca.com/oltca/OLTCA/Public/
LongTermCare/FactsFigures.aspx>.
19. “Ensuring Quality Care for All Seniors” (November 2018) 5-11, online (pdf):
Canadian Health Coalition <www.healthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/
Seniors-care-policy-paper-FINAL-Version-Dec-2019.pdf>; “Seniors in Transition:
Exploring Pathways Across the Care Continuum” (2017), online (pdf): Canadian
Institute for Health Information <www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/seniors-
transition-methodology-notes-2017-en-web.pdf>; “Dignity Denied: Long-term
Care and Canada’s Elderly” (February 2007) at 7, online (pdf): National Union of
PublicÂ
andÂ
GeneralÂ
Employees <nupge.ca/sites/default/files/publications/Medicare/
Dignity_Denied.pdf>.
20. “This is Long-Term Care 2016” (2016) at 8, online (pdf): Ontario Long-term CareÂ
Association <www.oltca.com/OLTCA/Documents/Reports/TILTC2016.pdf>.
21. See e.g. National Union of Public and General Employees, supra note 19; Canadian
Health Coalition, supra note 19; Andrew Longhurst, “Privatization and DecliningÂ
AccessÂ
toÂ
Seniors’Â
Care:Â
AnÂ
UrgentÂ
CallÂ
forÂ
PolicyÂ
Change” (March 2017), online (pdf):
BCÂ
OfficeÂ
ofÂ
theÂ
CanadianÂ
CentreÂ
forÂ
PolicyÂ
Alternatives <www.policyalternatives.ca/
sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2017/03/access_to_seniors_
care_report_170327%20FINAL.pdf>; “Situation Critical: Planning, Access, Levels
of Care and Violence in Ontario’s Long-Term Care” (21 January 2019), online (pdf):
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International